Category: Workers

If it’s true that fortunes favors the brave, Eric Ruth must be a lion. As an indy developer he’s authored a large number of demakes (a pixelated game that borrows core style or gameplay elements from another game). Most noteworthy are Team Fortress Arcade and Pixel Force: Left 4 Dead.

It has been a few years since I last spoke to Eric and in that time he’s been busy. A project that had Valve interested in his work (though it ultimately fell through) and a stint at Riot Games (home of League of Legends) had him traveling across the county. Now he’s settled down, with some new friends, to make his own original game.

This is the first in a series where we talk to the creators and hosts of shows featured on thePodKast.com, the gaming podcast network.

Adam “Torkz” from ReachCast, Dustin “Dust Storm” from Podtacular, Jon Shute from How to Murder Time and John “Agro” from KritzKast take a look at what made the first pick up the microphones and what it is that drives them to come back week after week for the entertainment of others.

For Australians there’s really only one TF2 community and that’s ozfortress. If you’re part of ozfortress there’s a chance you already know the name Tim Bagheri but if you don’t then I’m sure you’ll know him by his nick, wm or WarMaster. He certainly lives up to that nickname. With his assistance ozfortress runs cluster of active leagues, cups and charity events. For most people this would take up enough of their time. For Tim it’s just the start. He is also involved with Gamers United and TF2Mixup Match.

GU has a presence right across the world. Their servers and services extend from Australasia to Europe, South Africa and North America. KritzKast servers are provided by GU so I have a vested interest in their success too. It may just be that GamersUnited is the big brother who went out into the world and came back laden with stories and wisdom. In many ways that describes Tim too. They have recently taken on a new skin, a new look for old gaming hands.

In this first interview we talk to wm about all the works he’s been involved with and what we can expect from him later this year.

We finally put PubComp to bed in this episode of WiP. The ambitious attempt to create a web and server system that would allow dramatic customization of competitive play on the fly is a pipe dream many of us have shared. It was not to be. This conversation with the lead SourceMod coder, Vincenator, stands as a warning against placing too much control of a project in one man’s hands. With proprietary solutions shared between Parable and EOReality the project came within days of completion before it failed to finish.

Vincenator stays upbeat. The hard work has been done and his code is now in the hands of the public. It remains to be seen if anyone else will pick it up. For his part he is embarking on a career in coding. I hope he stays in the gaming space and comes back with a new project for us to follow.